In the ink metering device for printing presses disclosed in West German Patent No. 26 29 331 the ink metering elements are designed as side by side slides movable radially to the ink fountain roller. Each slide incorporates a transverse groove in which a camshaft is rotatable by hand or an adjusting motor to change the distance between the slide edge and ink fountain roller. This known ink metering device has generally produced good results in practice. However, if the ink metering has to meet particularly high accuracy requirements, more frequent readjustment of the individual ink slides is necessary to compensate for the effect of changes in operating temperature and other factors such as the hydrodynamic ink pressures at the slide edges.